미완의 계획: 1960년대 전반기 미 행정부의 주한미군철수논의

Abstract

Based on recently declassified archival materials, this paper reveals that, during the early 1960s, the Kennedy and Johnson administrations carried out an extensive internal review of the level of US troops in South Korea with a view to reduce it ubstantially. Two main motives drove the review: first, there was an interest to mprove US strategic flexibility in the West Pacific and secondly, under the deteriorating balance-of-payment situation, the US administrations desired to reduce overseas defence costs. The review was suspended indefinitely when the Johnson administration began to seek South Korean combat troops for the Vietnam War in 1965. Even until then, however, a final decision had been delayed because of disagreements inside the U.S. administration on both military and political issues involved. These included differing assessments of China’s military threats to Korean security and changing estimations of the US military’s airlift capabilities to send reinforcements to Korea swiftly responding to a major attack. Also, from a dominantly political viewpoint, the State Department had opposed the early implementation of large cuts being concerns about the following possibilities: the growth of China’s political influence in East Asia, troubles in US elationships with Japan and West European allies, and the deterioration of South Korean domestic instability.